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The latest ad from the Francisco "Quico" Canseco campaign pummels U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, over higher taxes and the national debt.

Texans weren't supposed to see Gov. Rick Perry's Sept. 15 schedule after all. The governor's office says it mistakenly released the governor's "political schedule" — as opposed to his schedule of official state business — to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White's campaign.

Your afternoon reading.

Rick Perry leads Bill White by 11 percentage points in the governor's race, according to the latest poll from Rasmussen Reports.

Since you probably don’t have time to look through 70-some campaign ad transcripts, we converted them into word clouds to help visualize the rhetoric of each political party. The word clouds compare the 100 most-used words by Republicans to the 100 most-used words by Democrats. The font size of each word is relative to its frequency of use.

The latest ad from U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, attacks his Republican opponent's past business dealings.

A new ad from U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, goes after Republican Bill Flores' plan to privatize VA health care.

The plot's still thickening in the incident on Falcon Lake.

Navarro County prosecutor R. Lowell Thompson's request that Judge Charlie Baird recuse himself from the Cameron Todd Willingham court of inquiry hearing wasn't decided today.

The office of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar has offered to help Mexican authorities in the search for a U.S. man officials say was shot and killed on Falcon Lake in South Texas. 

The latest ad from the Bill Flores campaign links difficult economic times to U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards' support of Nancy Pelosi.

Your afternoon reading.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry leads Democratic challenger Bill White by 5 percent in a new poll.

Controversy could thwart Cameron Todd Willingham's day back in court.

If the state needs money to balance its budget, it should look first to sin taxes on gambling, alcohol and marijuana.